During cross-examination by prosecutor Emma Nash at his Ipswich Crown Court trial it was suggested Mohammed Sabir had even given police the impression he was a virgin at the time of the alleged rape.

Sabir, of Westholme Road, Ipswich, denies dragging a 27-year-old woman into an alleyway next to his father’s Cromer Road home and raping her.

Miss Nash also suggested to the 21-year-old that he had only admitted having consensual sex with the woman when he was confronted by overwhelming DNA evidence before the start of his third police interview.

During the previous two interviews lasting a total of 86 minutes he had denied being in the alleyway or having sex with the women.

Sabir claimed he had already decided to tell the truth during his third interview with officers and retract his previous assertion that he had been in his father’s house watching television.

Miss Nash asked Sabir: “Are you saying if the officers had not told you about the DNA evidence before the third interview you would have admitted lying and having sex with her.”

“Yes”, he replied through a Kurdish Sorani interpreter.

When asked why he would have changed his mind Sabir said because he had not forced the woman to have intercourse.

Sabir said: “I was scared and later on I said I didn’t force myself (on her). I wouldn’t do such a thing near my house. In our culture it’s not acceptable to do things near your own house.”

Miss Nash suggested to Sabir the real reason he changed his story was that he was confronted with the DNA evidence.

He replied: “I told the truth because nothing else was going through my mind, just the fact that I did not force myself (on her).

The court heard Miss Nash say Sabir had continued to lie during his third interview.

He told officers he had never been in a similar situation.

Speaking to Sabir she said: “It was a lie that you have never been in such a situation before because you had been arrested and prosecuted for a sexual assault four years before.”

Sabir replied “Yes.”

Sabir had claimed he felt pressured into having sex with the woman after she asked for three or four pounds to have intercourse.

The jury heard he told officers it was the first time he had been approached like that in the street.

Miss Nash said it was the prosecution case that he lied when he answered their next question by suggesting it was the first time he had had sex. Sabir had told them he had never encountered a woman before.

The alleged rape is said to have taken place at around 8.30pm on March 3.